


Hidden Pasts & Karmic Payback

by Telaryn



Series: Grifters and Honest Folk [3]
Category: Leverage, White Collar
Genre: Angst, Drama, Emotional Baggage, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Road Trips, Secret Relationship, Secrets, Threats, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-14
Updated: 2012-05-14
Packaged: 2017-11-24 05:46:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/631096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years after Eliot attacked Neal on Damien Moreau's orders, a job forces them to spend time on the road together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hidden Pasts & Karmic Payback

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://www.dreamwidth.org/profile?user=angst_bingo)[](http://www.dreamwidth.org/profile?user=angst_bingo)**angst_bingo** 's Round 3, for the prompt "road trip".

_Sara Ellis._ It had been several lifetimes since Nate had even seen the lead investigator for Sterling Boesch Insurance, let alone worked with her. Seeing her now, it felt like no time at all had passed. She was still beautiful and knew it – red hair perfectly styled, and her outfit the kind of cutting edge fashion Sophie would kill to obtain.

“Cool it,” he said, a half-second before he knew Eliot was going to make a comment. Glancing over his shoulder, he was rewarded by the sight of his hitter glaring at him. “She’d eat you alive.”

Eliot’s scowl changed immediately to a smirk. “You’re not exactly scaring me off with that, you know.”

Nate rolled his eyes, realizing that it would probably serve both of them right if he did let Eliot take his shot. “Just remember, you can’t bring this one home with us,” he said, picking up his pace. Sara finally noticed him when they were about ten yards away.

“Nate!” She was suddenly all smiles and outstretched hand. He took it automatically, returning her smile with one of his own. “Good to see you again.” Leaning in, she kissed his cheek; Nate returned the gesture.

“Let me introduce you to my associate, Neal Caffrey.” Turning smoothly and slipping her arm into his, Sara gestured to the young man she’d been talking to when they’d arrived. “Neal, this is Nathan Ford.” She reacted as though she’d just realized Eliot was with them, but Nate knew it was an act.

“Eliot Spencer,” he said, turning and bringing Eliot into the conversation. Eliot shook hands with Caffrey and Sara in turn, but Nate saw how his attention stayed on the slim, dark-haired man in the very expensive tailored suit.

 _Interesting._  
******************  
The job was a fairly straightforward retrieval job with a couple of twists. Caffrey had the alias that would get them in the door, but Nate’s friend was trying to do this off the books. She’d gotten permission to take the paroled felon out of the city, but putting Caffrey on a plane in a post 9/11 world was going to raise more flags than she could afford.

It was the kind of job he and Nate could have pulled off in their sleep, as long as they could get all the pieces in place.

 _And how did you end up being one of the pieces we needed?_ Even though he’d been raised Christian, raised to believe in God and The Golden Rule, Eliot by and large considered himself these days to be somewhere between Agnostic and Atheist on the religious scale. It wasn’t that he’d been scarred by anything in his upbringing – far from it. He’d just seen too much in his life to have complete faith anymore in the existence of any sort of benevolent, omnipotent deity.

Standing across from one of the last casualties he’d racked up in service to Damien Moreau, was definitely giving him cause to rethink his position. _You didn’t kill him,_ he reminded himself, unable to keep his eyes off Caffrey. He’d only been tasked with delivering a warning to the thief, and based on what he was seeing of the man now, nothing he had done had permanently crippled him.

Eliot blinked, abruptly realizing that Nate had said something about driving – about _him_ driving Caffrey to where the object they were chasing had last been reported. _Oh no._ He was pretty sure Caffrey hadn’t recognized him. The odds of their past encounter staying under wraps after five hours in a car together weren’t anything he’d willingly bet on.

“Nate, can I talk to you for a second?”  
********************  
Ford excused himself, then he and his associate moved out of earshot. Neal watched them go. Nathan Ford didn’t bother him, but Spencer made him distinctly uncomfortable.

“What’s that all about?” Sara was watching him; a small frown line creasing the space between her eyebrows.

He spread his hands helplessly. “Why are you asking me?”

“Spencer knows you,” she said, looking back at the two men. “I’d stake my favorite pair of Ferragamos on it.”

“Maybe he’s a true crime buff?” It was a lame comeback, but it worried Neal that Sara had seen the same thing he had. Eliot Spencer knew him in a way Neal didn’t like to be known by anyone. _Especially when I can’t place where I know him._ The man made him nervous, but he suspected he wasn’t alone on that list.

“Neal…” There was a warning edge in Sara’s voice. “Don’t screw this up for me.”

He sighed, meeting her eyes. “I know you have no reason to believe me, but I’m not hiding anything Sara – I swear.”

She raised her eyebrows, glancing at Ford and Spencer. “I agree with you – Spencer knows me. If I knew from where, I swear I’d tell you.” He paused. “You want to just ask him? You said Ford’s a stand up guy.”

Sara looked thoughtful, chewing on the edge of a fingernail. “The Nate Ford I knew was a stand-up guy,” she admitted finally. “There’ve been rumors, though. He got out of the business after the death of his son. Then he resurfaced about a year later, working with a team of questionable types.” Neal knew the way she was looking at him what she meant by “questionable”.

“He started stealing things? And you trust him to help you get this piece back?”

“That’s just it.” Sara’s laugh was quietly incredulous. “He hooks up with some of the most notorious bad guys in the world, and they start helping people.”  
****************  
Eliot’s time with Moreau was something Nate despised thinking about. He hated every time it touched their lives, but this time Eliot was being immediate and honest with him, so he held his temper in check. “You’re sure he doesn’t recognize you?” he asked, once Eliot had detailed the entire story of his past experience with Sara’s associate.

His hitter spread his hands. “I can’t be sure. There’s no reason for him to be able to ID me, but he’s acting like he knows something.” Eliot sighed. “Put us alone in a truck for five hours, though…”

 _Put them together long enough without distraction, and the truth will come out._ “Is it likely he’ll hit you with anything you can’t handle?” When Eliot scowled at him, he raised his hands. “I know – I just have to ask.” He ran potential scenarios through his mind for another moment, and then blew out an explosive breath.

“I don’t see any other way to run this,” he said. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to need you to deal with whatever happens.”  
****************  
Ford’s plan, and the distance they needed to cover by car, meant that he had every reason to go back to his apartment and pack a bag. Sara went with him, but Neal couldn’t stop thinking about the .38 revolver he had hidden in his dresser drawer. “I don’t see why we can’t all drive together,” he said as they entered his apartment.

He should have been comforted by the fact that Sara didn’t automatically make fun of him for his concerns. “I told you – Nate and I need to lay some groundwork before you come in,” she said. “I talked to Nate – he promised me that as long as you behaved, Spencer wasn’t anyone you needed to worry about.”

She went to the kitchen table, while Neal diverted into the bedroom and grabbed an overnight bag. “And you trust Ford?”

“Trust is a hard word to apply to the situation,” Sara said. Neal glanced over his shoulder, then used his body to shield the drawer where he kept his gun. “I did check though Neal, and I can’t see any reason for either of them to target you.”

Neal hesitated for a second, then wrapped an undershirt around the revolver and stuffed it into the bottom of his bag. _Better safe than sorry._  
***************  
Eliot had expected the trip to be full of awkward stretches of silence, but to his surprise Caffrey was well-versed on a lot of subjects. He was also charming and easy to talk to – more confident than he’d been in the days when he’d been involved with Damien Moreau’s sister. A debate about the merits of French Nouveau versus modern fusion cuisine kept them distracted for well over an hour.

“You’re a man of hidden depths, Eliot,” Neal said, smiling. Eliot noticed immediately that the smile didn’t reach his eyes, however. “How’d somebody like you hook up with an insurance cop?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Eliot said, smiling wryly. “And Nate hasn’t been an insurance investigator for a while.” He paused. “Seems like you’ve done well for yourself though.”

Caffrey’s mask dropped for a split second, and his arm twitched involuntarily in the direction of his coat pocket. Eliot’s jaw tightened; Neal suspected more than he’d thought if he’d brought a gun. “You seem to know a lot about me,” he said carefully, keeping his attention straight ahead.

“I don’t spend five hours in a car with somebody and not check them out,” Eliot said. “Especially if they’re going to be stupid enough to bring a gun.”

The next handful of seconds passed in a blur. Neal’s eyes widened and he twisted slightly, reaching automatically for his outer jacket pocket. Eliot lashed out with his right hand, shoving Neal hard into the passenger door and tangling up his attempt to draw.

“Who the hell are you?” Neal cried. He struggled, but Eliot increased pressure and felt Caffrey’s shoulder start to give.

“Relax,” he snapped. Flicking on the turn signal, he managed to keep Neal pinned in place and get them off the highway at the next exit. “I’m somebody who doesn’t like guns and who knows how to break bones to make my point.”

He was going to have to clear things with Caffrey. They still had nearly three hours to go in the car together, and anything Eliot did to make sure Neal didn’t try to shoot him was going to compromise Neal’s willingness to help them get the job done.

“As soon as we stop,” he said, swinging the truck one handed into the first gas station parking lot he saw, “I’m going to ease off you. You’re going to reach in your pocket with two fingers of your left hand and pass over your gun.”

“And then you’ll kill me,” Neal countered, his tone so fatalistic Eliot was tempted to laugh.

“Kid, if I was going to kill you, I’d have done it already.” Reaching across the steering wheel, he put the truck in park. “Now play nice and hand over your toy.”

He eased his grip on Caffrey’s shoulder, ready for anything the kid might try in the way of a desperation play. He was relieved when Neal straightened up and moved as instructed. Eliot released him as soon as he passed over the gun. His hands moved automatically, dumping the bullets and separating the .38 down into its component parts.

“I was right.” Neal’s expression was hard, and colder than Eliot suspected most of his current associates ever saw from him. “You do know me.”

Eliot didn’t answer him at first, using the time it took to stow the pieces of Caffrey’s gun to figure out how he was going to start setting everything right.  
*******************  
Spencer had made him nervous from the moment they met. Now, watching him calmly take apart the .38 without even looking at what he was doing, Neal was more afraid for his life than he’d ever been. He wasn’t a fighter. He’d never been a fighter.

The two of them sat in silence for a few long moments, listening to the engine tick as it cooled. “Your hand still bother you?” Eliot asked finally, breaking the silence. He turned on the seat, meeting Neal’s eyes.

 _”You’re going to break up with Kate, and this is going to remind you what’s at stake.”_ Neal’s right hand closed into a fist almost of its own accord as memory battered at his thoughts. The attack hadn’t crippled him, but he’d spent two days in the hospital before doctors were able to assure him this was the likely outcome.

He’d never been able to identify the man who’d sliced his hand open, the man who’d beaten and terrorized him in the name of getting him to give up Kate. “You,” he whispered, fighting the urge to open his car door and run. _He’ll catch me._ He had no doubt about that – plus, this man worked closely with someone Sara trusted.

“You never knew how far in over your head you were.” There was a small smile twisting the corners of Spencer’s mouth. “I told Damien you were just a stupid kid with stars in his eyes, but he wouldn’t believe me.”

“Kate didn’t leave me. She wouldn’t.” He felt better saying it. Stronger. He’d recovered from what had happened, and even though he and Kate hadn’t been the eternal love he’d thought at the time, the end of their relationship had nothing to do with Eliot Spencer, or this Damien – whoever he was.

Eliot laughed softly, turning the key in the ignition again. “I remember.” Putting the car in gear, he checked over his shoulder, and then eased out onto the highway again. “You would have been proud of the way she fought for you. We all had a new respect for Kate after _that_ argument.”

“Who _are_ you?” Neal asked again. It was suddenly far too much information – past and present clashing in a way that left him feeling confused and much too vulnerable. He’d never doubted that the man who’d attacked him was capable of much worse, and Spencer was doing nothing now to relieve him of that fear.

“Nobody’s lied to you,” Eliot said, glancing over his shoulder again, prior to switching lanes and accelerating. “And you’re not being set up.” He paused. “But like you, I’ve come a long way from who I was.”

“You’re really good at not answering,” Neal snapped. “Anybody ever tell you that?” He wasn’t surprised to learn Kate had things about her life she’d never shared with him. She’d admitted to knowing who had sent Eliot after him following the attack, but she’d begged him not to press her for details.

_”I fixed it. He’s not coming after you again.”_

Like a love-struck idiot, he’d let things drop. He hadn’t pushed.

Neal realized Eliot was looking at him again. “She never told you why, did she?”

“No,” he sighed, unable to meet Spencer’s knowing gaze. “All she told me was that she’d handled things. She begged me not to push for details.”

Eliot was quiet for several long moments. Finally he said gently, “When this is all over, Google the name Moreau.”

Irritated, Neal looked at him then. “I know all about her family.”

“I’m betting you don’t,” Spencer replied. “Look for information on a brother and sister. Damien and Katerina Moreau.” Off Neal’s stunned look, he added, “You really were in way over your head.”


End file.
